2007: Digital identities and the Internet's Summer of Love

The Information Architects site has some thoughtful 2007 predictions for Internet trends. One that intrigued me was the development of a "Trusted Web."

The new identity system would require anyone that posts anything on the trusted web to identify himself. Anonymous reading would still be possible, but anyone that wants to contribute to a discussion, send a mail post a text, video, picture on the trusted web would have to identify himself. You could still run anonymous blogs but if you read them you?? know from the start that there is some phony business going on there. Of course identified websites should get a better search ranking.

I think this would be just fine. The question is who would provide the organizational muscle and technology for such identities? Portals? Banks? Governments? If you have the time, check out this presentation from the O'Reilly Open Souce Convention early this year by Dick Hardt, ceo of Sxip Identity.

Another prediction I found interesting was that the democratization of the Web would follow a 1960s timeline:

What has happened in 2006 is comparable to the early events of 1966 and if history repeats we might see a summer of love for the Internet coming along in 2007 leading to a more violent revolution in 2008 during the presidential elections.

I don't know about the coming summer of love. But I agree that in this country, at least, the Internet will flex political muscles in ways we can barely imagine. The intriguing aspect is that the revolution will likely make itself felt on all sides of the political spectrum. So how will those threatened by this process fight back?

Using a digital camera, the Orange County, Calif., resident created a two-minute "video resum??" that included highlights from her paper resum?? and answers to common interview questions.

"It was weird to figure out what to say," says Ms. Lattouf, 25 years old. But ultimately, "I let my personality show through."

Within two to three weeks of sending hiring managers a link to her video, she received several calls back. "It was truly painless," says Ms. Lattouf, who landed a job as a junior accountant in October.

Video resum??s are taking off, spurred by the combination of widespread broadband Internet usage, higher-quality video technology and increased enthusiasm for online video sharing. And young job seekers -- who may be long on enthusiasm but short on experience -- can use this technique to get an edge up on the competition.

"Depending on the industry and a particular position you're applying for, it can be a very effective tool," says Pamela Mitchell, a life coach in Miami.

But watch out: There is a fine line between a successful video resum?? and one that might be better left on the cutting-room floor.

A Cautionary Tale

Aleksey Vayner, a Yale University senior who recently applied to investment-banking powerhouse UBS via a video resum??, found that out.

His video ran more than six minutes and featured him lifting weights, playing tennis and ballroom dancing with a scantily clad young woman. It quickly made its way from Wall Street to video-sharing site YouTube to the "Today" show as an example of what not to do in a video resum??. (To see it at YouTube.com, search on "Aleksey Vayner CV.")

A UBS spokesman says the firm is currently investigating how Mr. Vayner's resum??, which offered a link to his video, got out.

Says Mr. Vayner, who is considering legal action against the firm: "If I had to apply to UBS again, I would not give them any confidential information, because they do not have a secure system." The Yale student hasn't yet found a job.

Cultivate Your Message

Video resum??s involve unique perils and require a fine balance. They have to be "compelling right out of the gate," says Steve Dempsey, vice president of recruiting with Aquent, a marketing staffing firm in Boston. That's because "interviewers make judgments very quickly." But you want to be memorable for the right reasons.

The aim is to come across as professional but not boring. Have an idea of what you want to say, but "don't sound canned," says Ms. Mitchell. Avoid wild hand gestures, grammatical errors, slang and lots of uhs and ahs. Keep jewelry to a minimum and wear a suit. Aim for a length of two to three minutes.

Web Resources

You can film a video resum?? yourself or get help from professional services that might charge around $100 to record a basic resum??. You can then upload the video to your own Web site or to a free video-resum?? site to which you can send a link. One such online site: ResumeBook.tv.

JobMatchPro.com, which is expected to go live in January, will also allow job seekers to upload video resum??s for free. Employers that register will be able to search the videos.

If privacy is a concern, don't upload your video to video-sharing sites such as YouTube or Google Video, although there's no guarantee it won't end up on those sites.

Also consider your target field. "Video resum??s show that you are innovative" and are a natural fit for those in sales and creative fields, says Ms. Mitchell, who recommends using video as a complement to paper resum??s rather than as a replacement. But she suggests applicants in traditional fields such as law and finance stick with paper, at least for now.

Posted by: Tyler Redford at December 30, 2006 10:24 PM

A trust web is built by trust linking and unincentivized opinion blogging.

You navigate the web by first going to reputable sites. Then you visit sites they link to in their blogrolls or posts. You may be able to drill down one more layer, by visiting the links this second layer of trust links to, but it's not advised in most cases.

So there are trusted sites and the sites they link to, and that's your already existing trust web.

As you discover more stable sites of relevance and integrity, you add them to your own blogroll and link to them in posts. The trust web stretches.

The sites that enter the trust web are only the pure, the unpaid opinion, the non-compensated blogs.

WOMMA, PayPerPost, and other incentivized "buzz agentiing" are artificial and self-destructive, lowering the reliability of the blogosphere as a trust web.